By the time they got moving once more, the group from the Society of Midnight was potentially only a handful of minutes behind. John still wasn’t able to sense them by traditional means, but the pieces of Ciaritzal called out to him. He hoped that there was nothing that would help them find him in turn. Perhaps the reactions of the shards might inform them of his presence on accident, but he couldn’t be certain.

What he did know was that they had to get as far away from them as possible. Fortunately the two groups had to travel at similar speeds unless the Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators wanted to break away to catch up to them alone. With more than a dozen mid to late Soul Expansion Phase cultivators on his own side he wasn’t worried about that option unless there were significantly more he couldn’t sense.

The rest of John’s group paved the way ahead of him, as he was the one erasing their tracks while his clan members funneled spiritual energy to him. The trick was making the sands feel natural, returning the depressed sand from their footprints to its previous state while also keeping the surroundings intact. It was easy enough to control the sands with earth elemental spiritual energy, but the power didn’t guide him back to a natural state. There was no will or memory in the sands, and he simply had to do his best to make things look natural… and quickly.

The rest of the clan members did their best to minimize other aspects of their passage such as a trail of spiritual energy- even darkness which was suited to hiding itself was rather easily picked out among nearly pure fire energy. It could always fool people, but John wasn’t going to bet on the Society of Midnight missing out on traces of darkness energy.

The entire group marched forward in a single line at a quick pace, the water element cultivators out front in case some fire attuned predator appeared. They would also be able to better deal with other obstacles through their elemental advantage.

It was unclear if any of the diversions had worked in the short term, with the general feel of the pursuers still approaching what John estimated was the ambush site. Would they recognize the empty carriage as a fake? Would they follow Aydan and the others back towards the road? If they had the opportunity they would doubtless follow him, as he was a higher priority target.

He wasn’t certain how many others there would be besides the three who had shards of Ciaritzal, but he expected to be outnumbered by cultivators of all levels. Thus, it was best if they could find some natural obstacles to slow down whoever pursued them. They just had to make sure they were hindered less than their pursuers.

-----

Aydan wasn’t particularly happy about leaving John, but he also understood that it made the most sense. Being bait was not something he objected to, but if he was going to be bait then he wanted to do it well. He considered slowing down slightly, but that might not just make things too obvious but also was unnecessary. Carriages weren’t exactly made to go over the sand after all, though even with the difficulties involved it was better than running. Their horses would be taking the majority of the exhaustion involved, though keeping the wheels functioning required some input from everyone on the carriages.

It was a shame they’d sent the best carriage off into the desert on its own, but money hardly mattered compared to lives saved. There was some chance they would be able to retrieve it later, but if the Society of Midnight was willing to devote at least three Consolidated Soul Phase cultivators to this ambush it was risky to go back out into the desert.

It wasn’t all that far to Vrona… though if they had actually walked into the ambush it might as well have been a million kilometers. With both the Shadowflame Disciples and the Society of Midnight? There was no way they would be surviving that, or that anyone from the city would notice anything until it was far too late.

The horses continued to pull the carriages with all of their might. Even horses bred for the desert would overheat when working their hardest, and anything could tire. Tame creatures with any amount of spiritual energy would be prohibitively expensive for multiple carriages, though if he survived Aydan would be suggesting something for the sect head’s carriage at least. The problem was finding creatures comfortable in different environments, since earth dominant creatures would be highly uncomfortable visiting their allies in the Green Sands.

When Aydan saw the road he was overjoyed, but unfortunately he had just begun to sense those following after them. The haze of darkness energy was almost sufficient to hide them, but there was a particular power source that stood out like a sore thumb. Was it a water element cultivator? No, not just that but air as well. He couldn’t quite pick out the details through the concealment, but regardless it was one more Consolidated Soul Phase cultivator. Several groups were really going all out for this.

As the horses made it back to the road, their hooves ringing on the solid surface and allowing him to relax his energy widening the effective shape of the wheels, the group following them grew ever closer. Yet they weren’t running directly after them, but heading to cut them off. It would be a shame to run the horses to death, but even if Aydan was willing to accept being a sacrificial decoy, that didn’t mean he couldn’t try to survive- for his own sake or the others.

The horses were pushed to their limits, and Aydan was trying to judge whether it would be worth the marginal increase in speed to leave the carriages and run themselves. It might be just enough for them to get away, or it might mean they were half-exhausted when they got caught.

If only he had been able to make the next step. He would soon advance from the Soul Expansion Phase to Consolidated Soul, but the availability of resources hadn’t aligned quite right with his training and duties.

A short few minutes later and it was too late to keep any significant ground by running, as the group was nearly upon them- barely concealed, as running full-tilt after someone was not the optimal situation to be stealthy. Aydan hoped that they had exhausted themselves, but the presence of further water element cultivators meant they would have at least been able to slightly mitigate the effects of the heat. It still took spiritual energy to catch them, but with superior numbers it hardly mattered.

-----

When one of the Brandle clan cultivators indicated she sensed water up ahead, John really didn’t see how that was advantageous to them. They would need to drink eventually, but they had sufficient water element cultivators to create enough to survive for quite some time. Surviving in the short term was more important.

Still, water would allow them to refresh themselves even if it was brief. Refilling their water skins would at least give them a short boost of energy. But when they arrived at the source of water, it was nothing like the oasis that John had expected.

How things had changed, that he could weather the desert heat well enough that he’d forgotten something important. This wasn’t just a desert like existed back on Earth. This was the Green Sands, an area dominated by the fire element… and prone to volcanic activity. Zolvolj was merely the core of that power, but there was some amount elsewhere.

Loose sand gave way into mineralized rocky pools, with a spout of water spraying into the air. Geysers.

“How are you with controlling hot water?” John asked the water cultivators. Just going near the pools let him know that despite the water ‘cooling’ after it came out of the geyser, it was not the pleasant cool he had somehow expected. Instead, it was nearly the same unearthly hot temperature of the rest of the Green Sands. That water would merely be extremely uncomfortable for cultivators, but the steam and water directly from the geysers would force anyone targeted by it to defend against an additional aspect they might not be expected. Even fire cultivators would likely find it a difficult combination to deal with.

The Brandle clan cultivators exchanged glances. “It should not be a problem, though using it for defense would be problematic.”

John nodded. He really didn’t want to surround himself with a bubble of water that was nearly scalding, and the water directly from the geysers would be worse than no defense at all if he got it too close. But having a physical component of the water element to control would greatly improve the effectiveness of water element techniques.

“We’ll take a stand here,” John said. “I still sense someone following us, though the others appear to have split off. I don’t think we can keep ahead. If we successfully conceal ourselves and they pass by we can slip away, but if they get close we can attempt an ambush.”

John began to carve out little pockets from the sand near the outer edge of the pools. Those areas would be the largest change to begin with, so modifications would be less noticed. If anyone from the Shadowflame Disciples was still with the group following them they might recognize their own ambush technique, but if done correctly their own ambush would be equally successful. Hopefully the battle following the ambush would be better for John though.

One modification that might have revealed them was making the sandy pits they were burrowing into less hot. Unfortunately they weren’t fire cultivators so it couldn’t be avoided if they didn’t want to cook themselves. The presence of the stone for the mineral pools would hopefully be enough to make the modifications with earth energy seem more natural.

They dipped down into the holes and began to wait. It didn’t take long before John was able to pinpoint the presence of the one with the shard of Ciaritzal. That would be his priority in the battle, since if he could wrestle that away it would weaken his enemy and strengthen himself at the same time.

Once they were a bit closer John could sense the man traditionally, including his cultivation. Mid Consolidated Soul Phase, more than a couple ranks higher than John. Yet the gap wasn’t so severe as the one in the tournament, since they were at least both in the same Phase. It did, however, tell John how deadly serious the Society of Midnight was. Even knowing they were an old sect with deep foundations, they couldn’t have that many cultivators at that level. Along with another Consolidated Soul Phase cultivator from the Shadowflame Disciples and somewhere around two dozen Soul Expansion Phase cultivators, they had committed a large number of forces to this endeavor. If he hadn’t been able to sense them ahead on the road, he would have just been dead, and while that wouldn’t have spelled the end for the Tenebach clan it would be a major setback for them.

The approaching cultivators didn’t even slow down as they followed the path John and the others had taken around the geysers. It wasn’t fully clear how they were tracking them, but there must have been imperfections in his technique. As it became clear they were going to pass right next to them, John wasn’t willing to risk not getting the first move. And the natural geysers were helpful enough to agree with him, building up for a release at just the right time.

When the next geyser burst, sending hot water and steam into the air, John combined his efforts with the four water cultivators, controlling its path and directing it towards the bundle of enemies. The attack wasn’t quite smooth enough to fully catch the incoming group off guard, but several of the weaker cultivators were still injured the attack regardless. The Tenebach cultivators all attacked simultaneously as well, using whatever ranged attacks they had available while they remained in a defensive position around John and the others.

With that, the battle was joined… and John was quite glad that he had brought along the four water element cultivators. The few Shadowflame Disciples countered with a burst of fire that was easily negated by a wall of water- and even though it was already hotter to begin with that just meant it helpfully turned into a concealing layer of steam. Now all John had to do was take that shard of Ciaritzal while the others held off superior numbers and one more powerful cultivator.